In a review headed with the words “It’s no Black Panther”, he accuses Captain Marvel of “unimaginative plotting, cut-rate villains [and] a bland visual style.”

Screen Daily’s Tim Grierson expresses similar reservations, calling the film “fun and breezy but also a tad familiar” and its action sequences “sturdy but unspectacular”.

Image copyright DISNEY/MARVELImage caption Britain’s Jude Law co-stars in the film as the leader of an intergalactic security force

Directed by indie film-making duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Captain Marvel is the 21st instalment in the series of Marvel blockbusters that began with 2008’s Iron Man.

Only one of its predecessors, last year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, has had a female superhero as a title character.

The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin is not alone in remarking that 2017’s Wonder Woman – made by rival company DC Entertainment – “beat it to the punch” in having a female superhero as its main protagonist.

Yet Empire’s Helen O’Hara – one of the few female critics to review the film – still regards it as an “essential… feminist fable” that “delivers in a more satisfying way than almost any other superhero film of recent years.”

Several critics express admiration at the digital effects used to enable Samuel L Jackson to play a younger version of the Nick Fury character he has played in previous MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) features.

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